1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices, systems, and processes useful as Power Line Network Adapters (PLNA), and more specifically to PLNAs used in conjunction with power bricks.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Power Line Network Adapters (PLNA) is a recent advance in networking technology that uses a building's AC power wiring and circuits to also transmit data signals between computing devices. Typical PLNA networking is done with a module plugged into a wall electrical outlet and then connecting a USB cable (or other type of interface connection, e.g. Ethernet) to the computer. While this type of solution has had some uses, it is not a well integrated solution for systems shipped with networking and requires several user steps in installing.
Some other types of electrical adapters have previously been proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,373,377 B1 describes a power supply in a personal computer that incorporates a network interface card (NIC). U.S. Pat. No. 6,307,764 B1 describes a power brick having signal transformers that are physically remote from a network adapter. U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,691 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,165 describe AC adapters with power conditioning; APC Corp., of West Kingston, R.I., offers similar devices on the current market. U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,705 describes a portable PC with an AC adapter having EMI filtering. While each of these documents proposes solutions to some problems, they do not adequately address the problems encountered by notebook, laptop, or portable personal computer users in trying to use PLNA technologies.